Installing Drupal 7 on 1 and 1 Web Hosting

Unless you use the "click to build" tool that is provided by 1 and 1, Drupal 7 requires some knowledge to set up on their servers. Some developers prefer not to use the click to build version, because it limits which modules and themes that you may use. Also, you cannot update the website when a new Drupal version is released, but instead have to wait until 1 and 1 updates the Drupal core to the most recent version.

If you are like most professional developers, you create websites in a development environment and then move them over to a production or live environment. However, most developers do not have their development environment configured the same way as 1 and 1's web hosted environment. This guide is to show you how to install your Drupal 7 website on 1 and 1.

Requirements

  • 1 and 1 web hosting package that has PHP and MySQL database support. Don't have a 1 and 1 hosting package, then get one now.
  • A Drupal website that you have created in your development/test environment.

The process

  • If you have not done so already, create a new database account (Control Panel > MySQL Administration) on 1 and 1.

  • Do not close this window. You will need the information that is provided later in the process.

  • After you have entered the account information, 1 and 1 will provide you with the login credentials for the database.

  • Creating the account takes some time (approximately 5 to 10 minutes). The database creation status is displayed on the database dashboard.

  • If you have not done so already, create an FTP account.

  • Do not close this window. You will need the information that is provided later in the process.

  • Creating the account takes some time (approximately 5 to 10 minutes. The status is displayed on the FTP dashboard.

  • Put your Drupal site into Maintenance Mode (Configuration > Development > Maintenance) and then log out.

  • Open the .htaccess file in the Drupal root folder and add "AddType x-mapp-php5 .php" to the top of the file.
  • In the .htaccess file, uncomment # RewriteBase /" line to support Clean URLs. Save the file.
  • Open the settings.php file (located in your Drupal installation at sites/default/settings.php) and add the database information that 1 and 1 has provided you in step 1. Save the file.

  • Export the database of your Drupal installation from your development environment to a SQL file.

  • If the file is really large (2MB or more), clear Drupal's cache before exporting. This will reduce the file size and the number of queries that will have to be ran.

  • Check the status of the database account that you have created. If the status is "Ready", click the PHPMyAdmin link to view the database.

  • On the left, click the name of the database that you set up to use for Drupal.
  • Click the "SQL" tab.
  • Below the text box is option to upload a SQL file to the server. Add the SQL file that you exported from your development database and click the corresponding "Go" button.
  • After it has completed, you should see a database structure that resembles that of your development environment.
  • Login to your FTP account using a FTP client (i.e. FileZilla) with the information provided in step 2...
  • Browse to the root folder of your domain.
  • Transfer your Drupal installation from your development environment to 1 and 1 in binary mode.
  • Change the file permissions to 0755.

If you followed these steps correctly, you should now be able to view your website via your website's URL. Notes:

  • If your website appears to be missing CSS styling and/or images aren't loading, login into website on 1 and 1 (i.e. example.com/user) and clear Drupal's cache (Configuration > Development > Performance > Clear all caches).
Updated: 2020-07-15 | Posted: 2015-06-28